September 9, 2010

LUZHOU, China – A respirator unit has helped save the lives of more than 80 infants at the People's Hospital in Luzhou, China. Staff from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) Global Mission visited the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital Sept. 2 and witnessed firsthand how engagement between the ELCA and the Christian church in China can lead to life-saving ministries.

The respirator unit was purchased with a grant from the ELCA. Another respirator unit has since been acquired, making the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit one of the best in the region, according to the Rev. Y. Franklin Ishida, ELCA director for the Asia-Pacific continental desk. Hospital administrators are expanding the neonatal unit to cover an entire floor, he said.

Ishida, the Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive director, ELCA Global Mission, and the Rev. Peter Shen, ELCA consultant on China, are in China at the invitation of the Rev. Gao Feng, president of the China Christian Council (CCC). The CCC is a national expression of the Chinese church, representing Protestant Christians in China.

According to the Rev. Liao Xiao-Qing, senior pastor of the Luzhou City Parish, a medical clinic of the parish serves as a natural extension of the church's social service efforts.

The clinic "provides a place for the people in the community and the church to receive medical services and to be part of a network for public health, especially for those living in poverty," she said. The clinic will soon become a 20-bed hospital.

The clinic is "a platform for church members to reach out to people in the community through counseling and visitations," said Liao. It serves about 16,000 people. With a new middle-income housing complex in the area, medical services will reach 20,000 people in Luzhou, located in China's Sichuan Province.

The Luzhou City Parish is a member of the Sichuan Christian Council (SCC). While the ELCA relates as a whole to the CCC, its specific engagement in China is with the SCC.

"Healing of the spirit is also a major matter in Luzhou," reported Ishida.

The Luzhou City Parish conducts a healing service once a month. On Sept. 5 Ishida, Malpica Padilla and Shen took part in the service. Hundreds of worshipers came forward for prayers and the laying on of hands, said Ishida.

"It was a moving experience," said Malpica Padilla. "Rather than me ministering to the people, the people ministered to me. (There were) moments when people came to me for a blessing. Some of the elderly pressed their foreheads against my chest. That moved me. My spirit was renewed by those deep, intimate moments," he said.

The ELCA participates in a variety of programs in Luzhou designed to enhance people's lives, reported Ishida.

"Since 2006 the ELCA has supported the Luzhou Disabled Persons' Federation (DPF) in its care for children with cerebral palsy and hearing impairments, as well as helping to reconstruct the homes of people living with disabilities – homes damaged from an earthquake in 2008," he said.

The DPF utilizes a "human rights-based approach in working with people living with disabilities, empowering them to be more independent and recognized by society," said Ishida. "A rights-based approach is how the ELCA looks at development work throughout the world. This holistic model puts the gospel into action, recognizing the dignity of each child of God."

Information about China is available at http://www.ELCA.org/China/, on the ELCA's website.

ELCA News Service
The Rev. Y. Franklin Ishida contributed news reports from China.